Lotus Has Successful Opening Day Of Practice For 2011 Indy 500

Lotus had a successful, if rain shortened, opening day of practice for the 2011 Indianapolis 500 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana.

On a day when track time was limited due to rain and shaking down the car was more important than speed, Takuma Sato, No. 5 KV Racing Technology – Lotus, was the fastest of the three KVRT – Lotus cars posting a speed of 220.883 mph on the historic 2.5-mile speedway oval putting him 20th on the speed charts. E. J. Viso, No. 59 PDVSA - KV Racing Technology – Lotus, logged a fast lap of 220.529 mph placing him 24th, while, Tony Kanaan, No. 82 GEICO – KV Racing Technology – Lotus recorded a lap of 220.387 mph putting him 25th.

Sato, who turned a team-high 23 laps, made his IMS debut last year. Regarding his return to the Speedway he said, "I am happy to be back at the Speedway. Things went smoothly today. The first run was fast and cool. It was just a shakedown of the car to be sure everything was working. Unfortunately, the day was interrupted by rain, but at least we got in part of the day and got our program started."

Viso, who ran 16 laps today, is making his fourth appearance at the Brickyard. Commenting on today's opening day of practice the young Venezuelan said, "I think today we pretty much accomplished what we were looking for. We know how the car is running and now it's about getting it up to speed. It's going to be a long couple of weeks, so we need to have a lot of patience and put all the information from each day together so we are prepared for race day."

Kanaan, who logged 19 laps and will be attempting to qualify for his 10th Indy 500 said, "It was an ok day. It was the first day for me with the team driving on ovals. I was trying to judge my measurements and run my setup for the first time. Not a lot to say really, just glad we went out and did a couple of runs and understood how the car reacts, but, like I said it's just the first day."

Practice began promptly at 12 noon with the first KVRT – Lotus car taking to the track at approximately 12:15 p.m. when Kanaan turned one "installation" lap. All three cars ran laps in the first hour before heading to the garage for setup changes. Sato returned to the track in the mid-afternoon before rain started to fall at approximately 3:00 p.m. halting practice. The rain stopped and the track dried allowing Kanaan and Viso to run a few laps in the late afternoon, but a second round of showers brought an end to on-track action at 5:25 p.m. 35 minutes before the scheduled 6:00 p.m. close. A total of 33 cars turned a total of 669 laps today. Ed Carpenter posted the fastest speed at 224.786 mph.

The 100th anniversary Indianapolis 500 will be held Sunday, May 29. It will be broadcast live on ABC beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.